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Renishaw‘s (LON: RSW) financial results for the first half of FY 2018 mark a profitable opening to the additive manufacturing earnings season for the British engineering company.

During the 6 months of the period ending December 2017, Renishaw’s total revenue was £279.5M, up 17% on the same period in the previous year from £238.1M.

Though financial growth is reported across all divisions at Renishaw, CEO and co-founder Sir David McMurtry says these latest numbers show “particularly strong growth in additive manufacturing and measurement and automation.”

Next month, in February Sir McMurtry, will step down as CEO, entering an advisory role as Executive Chairman. Sales and marketing director William Lee will take over the helm. Since joining Renishaw in 1997, Lee was appointed as Director and General Manager for the laser and calibration products line in 2007 and became a board member in 2016.

Strength in additive manufacturing

Renishaw reports revenue by the Metrology and Healthcare divisions, with additive manufacturing systems included in Metrology.

In the first half of 2018, Metrology revenue is up to £63.2M from £42M in H1 2017. Highlighted in this segment as “critical to future growth” is the company’s RenAM 500Q four-laser metal 3D printer, which was released during formnext 2017.

Speaking to investors, William Lee said the RenAM 500Q “addresses one of the challenges that we’ve talked of in the past of productivity in additive manufacturing, a [fight] to build parts cost effectively in production,”

“It reduces the cost per part, and that allows us to open up additive manufacturing for more applications.”

In addition, Lee detailed the in-built analysis offered by the 500Q, allowing a user to understand melt pool behaviour and laser intensity.

Measurement expertise at Renishaw will continue to be applied to the additive manufacturing and healthcare segments to encourage growth.

Growth by region

By region, revenue in Europe and the Americas both grew at the same rate of 21%. . Total revenue for Europe in H1 was £71.8M, and the Americas revenue for £58.8M. The Far East and Australasia is still driving the highest revenue however, bringing in £125.2M for H1 2018.

Lee comments, “The really good news here is that we have growth across all of our regions. And in fact, double-digit growth across all of the regions.”

Toward end-use production, full year revenue at £600M

The trend noted throughout the presentation was that Renishaw is witnessing a shift in additive manufacturing toward end-use production. As McMurtry explains, “These machines are really coming to their own, making high-value complex parts. And the industry is now gearing up to see what parts in their requirement really gets a benefit from this.”

Profit for the period was £58.6M, up from £17.4M in the comparative period. Renishaw expect the coming six months to continue this run of success with revenue guidance between £575M and £605M for the full financial year. 2018 earnings guidance on pre-tax profits is forecast in the range of £136M to £156M.

Renishaw’s announcement of 2018 full year results will be 26th July 2018. The consolidated income statement for the first half on 2018 can be viewed below, and full interim report can be found here.

Beau Jackson is Senior Journalist at 3D Printing Industry. With a longstanding commitment to the site's content, she is credited with producing more articles than any other author in its history. Well-versed in the latest 3D printing research and legal/regulatory challenges, her repertoire spans aerospace, automotive, maritime, medical and creative industries. She is a keen speaker and active representative of the company at key additive manufacturing events.